MORE than half of the hiking groups, involving 597 people, failed to honor their online reservations to hike the coastal trail between Dongchong beach and Xichong beach on the Dapeng Peninsula over the weekend.

The tourism authority in Dapeng received on its official public WeChat account “大鹏文旅通” registrations from 97 groups of 1,139 people to hike over the weekend. However, according to the tourism authority, only 560 people in 44 groups honored their reservations to hike the trail, said to be one of the eight most beautiful coastlines in China.

Dapeng tourism administration said that those who fail to honor their registrations three times for no reason will be blacklisted and disqualified from registering for hiking for six months.

The tourism administration has set a daily limit of 2,100 hikers. During the initial stage, hikers can also register on-site at the service stations at the trailheads.

People intending to hike the trail need to register with the authority the time they will hike, the number of people, their ages and health conditions, as well as whether they have a guide. Hiking alone is prohibited, according to the Dapeng tourism administration.

At around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, a group of seven people, headed by a man surnamed Hu, showed up at the entrance of Dongchong without registering beforehand. They said they didn’t know they had to register online or on-site. Three women wearing sandals were persuaded to buy rubber shoes nearby before hiking.

Also, when night fell Saturday, 13 hikers lost their way on Mt. Paiya, the sixth-tallest mountain in the city with steep cliffs facing the ocean on three sides. The hikers were saved Sunday morning by police after a nine-hour search.

Dapeng police and the border control department received 72 requests for help and rescued a total of 342 people in 2016. Between January and May this year, the authorities conducted 25 mountain rescues and rescued 127 people.

There are 14 recognized country trails of varying degrees of difficulty on Dapeng Peninsula. The Dapeng Ancient Trail and the Yangmeikeng stream trail for leisure, and standard trails from Xigong to Banyuntian and Dongchong to Xichong have been opened to the public. Five challenging trails and four science research trails remain closed to the public at present.